EPICURUSand The Pleasant Life

​Nature vs Reason

Philosphic inquiry took two distinct approaches in searching truth. The first one recognized the precedence of nature and the second of logic.The natural approach took the lead in the course of time through Thales and later with Democritus, but it suffered a recession by the revolutionary teaching of Socrates, Plato and partly of Aristotle, who gave precedence to logic and its ideas. Soon though the theory of Platonic ideas was abandoned and the tradition of Ionian science of Thales was reviving supported by Epicurus and Aristotle who in the later part of his life turned to the study of biology.

This historic evolution of philosophical thought had the immediate effect to create a competition between Nature and Reason for the command of philosophic attention. Epicurus the last of the eminent philosophers of antiquity denied the existence of Platonic ideas on the ground that the only existences were atoms and empty space. Thus to his thinking man stood face to face with physical reality primarily through his senses an...

CHAPTER 1

OVERVIEW

“The secret of happiness is in the

diathesis (disposition) of which we are sole arbiters.”

Epicurean follower, Diogenes of Oenoanda

Of all the philosophers to ever walk the golden grounds of ancient Greece, there was one man particularly worthy of notice. So notable was his work that even now, two thou­sand three...